Selecting Culturally Responsive Texts
Overview
Selecting culturally responsive reading materials, including multicultural and diverse texts, is critical for supporting all students. Diverse texts should reflect different facets of students' identities, including race, ethnicity, gender, socioeconomic, and disability status, as well as the intersections of those identities. Engaging with texts that reflect the diverse experiences of all students allows each reader to connect with and see themselves in what they read, encouraging a sense of belonging. Diverse content also exposes students to perspectives that may be different from theirs, expanding their cultural awareness and Background Knowledge. It is important that texts go beyond surface-level diversity and engage with complex social issues to truly support the practice of culturally responsive teaching and the development of critical literacy skills.
Example: Use This Strategy in the Classroom
Learn how these educators conducted an audit of their elementary classroom libraries to create a collection of diverse, representative texts. By providing rich choices that are mirrors and windows into other cultures, students are able to develop a greater sense of their own identities and widen their viewpoints.
Design It into Your Product
Videos are chosen as examples of strategies in action. These choices are not endorsements of the products or evidence of use of research to develop the feature.
Learn how OurStory allows learners to discover books that celebrate diverse experiences. Through an interactive quiz, learners can explore and read a variety of titles that might interest them.
Additional Resources
Additional examples, research, and professional development. These resources are possible representations of this strategy, not endorsements.
Factors Supported by this Strategy
More Culturally Responsive Strategies
Developing empathy in educators and in learners is an iterative process that requires taking the time to understand and honor others' perspectives.
Checking in with learners, or taking the time to talk with individual learners about their experiences or goals, is important for fostering a positive classroom environment.
Developing cultural awareness as an educator is an ongoing process that includes building empathy for the full diversity of students, intentionally recognizing how one's own identity intersects with students' identities, and creating an awareness of how the learning environment can impact students' Sense of Belonging.
Discussing race with students can range from celebrating the importance of diversity to understanding the impact of racism from the perspective of those who have been historically marginalized.
A first step to supporting learners is truly understanding who they are.
Equitable grading systems and practices reimagine how to assess and communicate student progress through various methods that reduce subjectivity and increase opportunities to learn.
Family engagement happens when educators and schools collaborate with families to collectively support their child's learning in meaningful ways, both at school and at home.
Learning about students' cultures and connecting them to instructional practices helps foster a sense of belonging and mitigate Stereotype Threat.
Student-led conferences are meetings between students, parents, and teachers where the student actively leads the conversation by reflecting on their progress toward goals and sharing examples of their work.
Translanguaging is a flexible classroom practice enabling students to listen, speak, read, and write across their multiple languages or dialects, even if the teacher does not have formal knowledge of these additional languages.
